Chapter 21

"Sir!" I turned and found myself face-to-face with Darson, a young lance corporal of Three Section. "We may need to assess the enemy situation!"

"What?"

"I have a visual. A troop of enemy vehicles, moving in from the south!"

I spun round in the direction Darson was pointing. And to my horror, I could just make out a line of armoured tanks, heading towards us in the distance, bringing up clouds of dust around them. A line of tanks our company had failed to see, or predict.

I snapped into action. "Sir!" I tried to catch the captain's attention.

The captain turned, annoyed to be disturbed as he debriefed his officers.

"What is it, Lawless? Daddy not here to see you command your first proper mission?" He stopped when he saw my expression.

"Sir - enemy - south - tanks!" I spluttered.

Luckily the captain got the gist of what I was trying to tell him. He shoved me to one side and gazed out towards the approaching enemy, who had seemed to make a lot of distance since Mills had first spied them.

"Right - we're getting out of here!" yelled the captain to Grey and I. He took out his radio and barked into it, commanding the Chinooks back ASAP.

"We're getting out?" I asked, several minutes later, as the Chinooks arrived and the soldiers of Grey's platoon piled into one.

"What else to you suggest we do!" the captain replied haughtily.

"Take them!"

"What?"

"There's fewer of them than there are of us! We can blow them out of here!"

"Lawless - get in the chopper! I'm not having my men putting their backsides on the line unless another assault is absolutely necessary!" He leapt into the chopper with Grey and it took us, leaving me to get my soldiers in the second one.

But my men were still back at the clearing. They were on foot, and it was at least ten minute's running back to where the chopper waited. And the enemy was coming ever closer. I had to chose. Save my men and take out the enemy, or retreat with the rest of the company whilst we had the chance.

"Sir?" Corporal Jones, behind me. He was in the process of ordering the soldiers back into the choppers, but had become hesitant.

I turned to face him. "Get them men back in the tanks!" I yelled.

"Are you kidding?" yelled another corporal, having heard my suggestion to the captain. "No bleeding way are we going back out there! We'll be ripped apart!"

I ignored their objections and jumped back into the now empty tank, grabbing the controls, which were much like those of an automatic car.

"Get the men back in!" I repeated. "Do as I say! One and Two Section are still back there."

"But, sir - they'll be here and safe by the time the enemy get anywhere near us!"

"I know that. We can take out the enemy."

The soldiers looked at me, a shocked expression on their faces.

"Sir, please excuse me," cried a young private, "but there's not way we can take down the enemy! We have no battle orders, no timings, no tasks in mind!"

He was making perfect sense, of course. He would make a great RSM one day. No way I could do what I was planning. But I knew this would be my only chance to take down the enemy. This was obviously a big portion of their back-up who had sent to assault us. It would be a huge blow to them if we could destroy them. We could take them on. We could beat them. We had to! And I was in charge. If this all went as I planned, I could have prevented another stage of the enemy's operations from taking place. I could put their plans back by days! And perhaps, I could even be fast-forwarded for promotion.

I commanded the troops back into the tanks. I led the way southwards, ignoring the voice of my captain coming from my radio. We got into position. We took aim. We fired.

And then I realised, with a sickening dread, that I had just made the biggest mistake of my career.